Magic and Element Zero
by Death Knight 1993
Summary: When the strike witches are forced to flee from their home reality they alter the destiny of the Systems Alliance, and the entire galaxy.
1. Prologue

**disclaimer: I do not own Strike Witches or Mass Effect, if I did why would I would I be putting this on ?**

 **A/N: some people will question me about the plasma weapon effectiveness, well yes plasma may not do damage to ME shields in and of its self, however the massive amount of free electrons in plasma and the magnetic field would short-out KB in a single hit. Particle weapons would be ignored or blow right thru due to shear power. I hope that this explains why the weapons are so powerful. Also this is my first fanfic so please give me advice if necessary**

 **Prologue: fall of the strike witches**

January 15th 1947

location unknown

converted basement lab

Yoshika screamed as she felt another knife cut into her skin, the men responsible for her pain not seeming to notice or care. As she lay shackled to the table, she could already feel her skin knitting together.

"Good... good, her body is accepting the core," said an old sickly sounding voice, "soon humanity will fall, as the Dark Gods demand. All hail the Neuroi!"

"All hail the Neuroi!"

As they said this, she turned her head to look at the other members of the 501st JFW the Strike Witches, all having had the same done to them as was done to her. She closed her eyes and silently wept, then she heard the leader speak.

"The lords do not care if they are virgin or not!" he said "you may enjoy their bodies before the lords come to collect them."

In that moment, as one stepped toward Lynette, Yoshika felt pure unbridled rage, blue Neuroi firing plates appeared on the back of her hands and down her spine. With a roar that almost sounded like a Neuroi's screech she fired her beams, killing all 18 men in the room and blew the cuffs off major Mio Sakamoto's wrists and ankles. Not wasting a moment the major leapt up, grabbing an MP40 out of one of the dead guard's hands. As she did this the gun was converted into a Neuroi weapon, she didn't have time to think about that as a pair of guards came through the door. The guards only had enough time for their eyes to widen before blue bolts of energy tore through their bodies. Quickly the major began ripping the restraints off the other witches. Once this was done and the younger witches had finished dry heaving, they armed themselves with the guns from the bodies, they assembled at the door. Mio had retrieved Reppumaru (her katana) from the body of one of the guards who had taken it as a trophy. After making sure that everyone was prepared, Gertrud Barkhorn used her magic enhanced strength to kick the door down.


	2. Crystal Heart of a Witch

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or strike witches.**

 **AN: to those reading This story I do not mind if you take the prologue and use it to write your own story, Please alert me if you do so that I know the name of your story. Thank you.**

 **Chapter 1: Crystal Heart of a Witch**

 _february 21_ _st_ _1949_

 _20 miles north-west of Paris_

 _abandoned barn_

Yoshika snapped bolt upright in bed, heart beating in her chest, eyes wide and firing plates primed. Lynette wrapped her arms around her waist and began to whisper into her ear

"It's ok, it's ok, it was just a nightmare, you're safe"

Yoshika shook her head, "It wasn't just a nightmare, it was a memory of when we got our cores"

Lynette's face fell as she too remembered the pain they all went through at the hands of the brotherhood of the black devils. Those people believe that the Neuroi were actually gods disappointed with humanity, and thus felt it necessary to help them end humanity going as far as to sabotage weapons, hijack supply convoys and kidnap/murder witches if they got the chance.

Another problem was that a large number of generals called them abominations for being half Neuroi now, as a result they had been on the run for nearly two years, learning their capabilities as they went. One of the most shocking abilities they had gained was to convert any weapons or equipment into their Neuroi variant. Another ability they had gained was to extend Neuroi armour over their bodies, making them look like human form Neuroi.

Not only were they on the run from the military but also from Neuroi who wanted to use them to kill all the witches on the planet. Unwilling to kill fellow witches, but unable to join them they were left with no choice but to keep on running, but this did not mean that they did not attack the Neuroi in armoured form whenever they got the chance. This led to them being called the shadow witches, due to their attacks being at night and people only getting glimpses of their pitch black forms. Between the Neuroi wanting to use them to kill witches, and the allies wanting to execute them, they were limited in their options.

She looked towards the middle of the warehouse where the wing commander and major Skamoto were carving the final runes for a modified single use tele-porter array. Such arrays were only used to transport small amounts non-living materials normally.

At that moment she heard a sound that she did not want to hear: the sound of land witches and tanks.

Outside the witches of the 58th liberon land witches were giving their equipment a final check before they engage the half-breeds hiding in the old warehouse ahead of them. Their orders were to go in, kill the half-breeds, and get out, simple right? Not so simple when the half-breeds in question were the 501st strike witches, the first and most successful joint fighter wing. Just before they began their attack, the warehouse lit up with enough magic to force them to their knees. When the magic had dissipated, they entered the building with caution. Inside they found recently vacated bunks, empty weapon and striker racks, and a massive modified single-use tele-porter array.

Arcturus station

Mass Effect universe

4 hours post inter-universe jump

6 years pre-first contact

Rear Admiral Hackett stood, looking into the lab where the 11 girls who appeared in the middle of an important meeting of the admirals, were lying unconscious. A cough attracted his attention to a rather confused scientist who had just left the lab.

"Report"

"Well they are the most unusual people I have ever encountered" replied the scientist

"What makes them unusual?"

"What makes them unusual is that half their cells are carbon-based and the other half is silicon-based"

"What!? How is that even possible?"

"Oh you think that is unusual, just you wait till you hear this. Their bodies are giving off an energy signature that we have only just identified as Quantum Energy Waves. And that's not the best part! They are producing immense amounts of Quantum Energy Waves and it appears that they may be able to control it too! On top of that those weird devices that came with them seem to be powered by and amplify QEW"

At that moment a marine called out "Admiral! One of them seems to be coming-to!"

Major Mio Sakamoto groaned as she dragged herself from the depth of unconsciousness, siting upright as she looked around. The room she and the rest of the squadron were in looked like an advanced lab or medical bay. A whooshing noise attracted her attention to a door opening. Looking over her eyes widened as she shot to her feet and saluted the Admiral that had just entered.

"At ease soldier, now tell me how you and your friends ended up in a secure meeting room, with world war 2 era weapons, unknown machines and why half your cellular structure is silicon-based."

"So let me get this straight," Hackett really wanted to rub his temples "the lot of you are from a variant of earth were in stead of two world wars you had two invasions by an alien race you call the Neuroi, the only counter for which were witches like you. The problem was that witches usually stop being combat capable around twenty, resulting in a recruitment age of around ten to eleven."

"Thats correct." Minna replied from her place at the conference table.

"I'm so glad that we managed to keep this quiet." he mumbled under his breath before continuing "the reason you fled was because a group of mad men forcefully implanted you with Neuroi tissue making you half-human, half-neuroi resulting in most of the command structure despising you on principle."

"yes sir"

"Alright, for now the lot of you are classified as refugees and your existence is top-secret."

"Understood." she replied nodding

"Now that the ease part is over comes the had part."

"Hard part, sir?"

"the paper work."


	3. Timeline one

Time line:

2151: Arrival of the Strike Witches on Arcturus station. 2 months after arriving they are made into a top-secret squadron under newly promoted Admiral Hackett's direct command. Given weapons specially made for them, they become the most deadly force humanity can deploy. Designs for a super-dreadnought are made, keel laid down a month later.

2152: Girls between 5 and 20 begin to show abnormal, even supernatural, abilities. They are later discovered to be witches.

2153: scientists discover a way to safely remove a shard of a Neroui core from a strike witch.

2154: the first Yamato class super dreadnought, _Yamato,_ leaves dock on its shake down cruise. A shard of Sergeant Yoshka Miyafuji's core was used in its construction as a power generator.

2155: _Yamato_ reveals her sentience to the Strike Witches, claims that Yoshka is her mother. They are later assigned to _Yamato_ on a permanent basis.

2156: Witch training unveiled, along with the existence of the Strike Witches. Jane Shepard, daughter of the _Yamato's_ XO, Hannah Shepard, is discovered to be a witch.

2157: _Yamato_ assigned to Shanxi in preparation for opening a new relay.

 **Codex: Witch squadron identification**

The Alliance's method for identifying the type of witches in a division is simple, any with 100 as part of their number used land-strikers, any with 200 used airspace-strikers. However there were divisions that don't follow these rules, such as the 1st Strike Witches who use both and the 2nd Research Witches who developed and test new Strikers and weapons.


	4. First contact

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or strike witches.**

 **Chapter 2: First contact**

 _December 12_ _th_ _2157_

 _Shanxi theta relay_

 _Yamato class super-dreadnought, SSV_ Yamato

 _Yamato_ hung in space next to a dormant relay, although dwarfed by the relay _Yamato_ was the largest vessel humanity had at 4.2 km bow to stern. She was also the most heavily armed too, with 3 spinal plasma accelerators cannons (Neruoi enhanced mass accelerators), broadside plasma pulse cannon turrets, particle beam plates and a triple-layer guardian, CIWS and flak point-defence grid, on top of this she also had a prototype interception grid designed to take out incoming solid rounds. She also carried 40 of the new A-30 storm multi-role fighter which was based on the A-10, but was armed with a pair of tank grade plasma pulse cannons and an 8 barrelled rapid fire particle pulse cannon as well as under wing missile racks. She also had the best protection with Cyclonic Barrier Technology (CBT) and Quantum energy shields (witch shields or QES). On _Yamato's_ bridge stood Captain Minna Dietlinde Wilcke commanding officer of the 1st Advanced Witches Division (AWD), the Strike Witches.

She was waiting for the rest of the battle group to arrive before they opened the relay. The battle group consisted of 1 enterprise class heavy carrier, 4 battle cruisers, 8 destroyers, and 16 recon frigates. All the ships were upgraded with reverse-engineered weapons off the Yamato class super-dreadnought. She hoped that the battle group was not needed and that this would be a peaceful exploration mission. Unknown to her this mission would be anything be peaceful.

Several systems away a fleet of slaver vessels were attacking a small colony, they were trying to be quick for the colony had managed to get out a distress signal. no one knew what was going to respond to that signal.

Had she been able to, Yamato would of blinked as she picked up an unknown signal. Less than 5 seconds later she managed to translate the transmission.

"Captain, you need to listen to this."

"What is it?"

"A distress call from an unknown race's colony."

"We're not rated for first contact, or natural disaster relief."

"It's not natural, it's an attack by slavers."

"WHAT!?" the one word rang throughout the bridge as Minna began belting out orders, "Get the fleet into FTL now, I want everyone ready for to fight, XO you have the bridge, I'm going to lead the Strike Witches myself."

With that said she left the bridge at a dead sprint as the fleet shot into FTL not knowing that their actions had changed everything that was to come.

Jandori 41st 2659 GS

thelena system

New Asari colony Dellena

Jiakime T'gora ran, clutching her screaming 4 year old daughter to her chest as the sound of the firefight between the colony's only squad of huntresses and a large group of slavers began to peter out behind her. Even though she knew she had to keep running she was unable to do so, slowing to a stop to catch her breath.

"well look here boy's," A voice rang out to her left, "Another one to add to our quota! And look its two for the price of one!"

Jiakime stiffened, slowly turning her head to look in the direction of the voice. Standing there twenty Batarians surrounded a large flat bed truck loaded up with cages, and In those cages striped of clothes and dignity, were asari.

She took a step back and tripped over a pice of rubble. As the laughing Batarians approached she prayed, to anything that would listen, for help.

As one reached down to rip her daughter from her arms she turned her eyes to the heavens and screamed, "Someone, anyone, save us!"

And the heavens answered.

Mio flipped her body round so she landed feet first on top of the four eyed slaver scum, crushing him before he could take the child from its mothers arms. With her assault cannon in her left hand and Reppumaru in her right she slaughtered them without mercy.

Knocking her sword against her leg to clean it of blood she resheved it a cross her back. Behind her Yoshika was already ripping the cages open and healing those who needed it.

Turning to the woman who she had rescued she asked a simple question,

"Are you alright?"

Jiakime stared at the being before of her, a being who dropped from orbit with only armour to protect it from re-entry, crushed a Batarian under its boots and slaughtered nineteen others with an energy weapon and a sword, an honest to Goddess sword!

March 25th 2158

serpent nebular

widow system

Citadel

The Citadel, easily the largest space station in council space, home to millions of people, seat of the Citadel Council. Although this massive edifice dwarfed all, today it was not the most imposing object in system. That dubious honour belonged to the _SSV Yamato,_ the first super-dreadnought the council races had ever encountered. Twice the length of the largest dreadnought in council space, the _Destiny Ascension_ , she had shocked everyone when she shot out of the relay and moved towards the Citadel with grace and agility more appropriate for a frigate than a multi-kilometre dreadnought.

On the bridge of the _Destiny Ascension,_ Asari Matriarch Lidanya glared out at the ship that was making a mockery of the most powerful ship in council hands. It had stopped just beyond weapons range and had deployed a shuttle that contained a diplomat and an escort team. She frowned, the exact words of the captain was that they were sending a 'squadron of witches with Land-strikers' to escort the diplomatic team. Witches was probably their term for Biotics, but what in the name of the goddess were Land-strikers?

Counsellor Tevos waited at the docks as the new race's shuttle – no drop-ship – came in to land. She was still a little nervous at the prospect of meeting a new race. On the other hand she was also excited to meet a race that had what she assumed was biotics as special-forces, she could not wait to see what techniques they had come up with.

Beside her Counsellor Valern studied the incoming drop-ship, noting that it still agile despite its heavy armour and armament. That showed that they had extremely good material and propulsion technology.

Counsellor Sparatus had to admit that this race knew how to make good weapons if the fact that they used directed energy weapons as standard on their ships meant anything.

Tevos watched with some trepidation as 11 black armoured figures jumped out of the drop-ship while it was still a couple of meters in the air and began to secure it's intended landing zone as soon as their boots hit the ground. The co-ordination they showed was at the level of veteran Asari commandos, that spoke of how experienced these 'Witches' were.

Sparatus was grudgingly impressed at the discipline the so called 'witches' displayed in securing the landing zone, covering every angle and taking no chances. Although the variety of weapons was concerning; most of them were armed with a triple-barrelled machine gun under one arm and a large caliber cannon under the other, but there were a few notable exceptions, one lacked the cannon and instead had a sword strapped to his/hers/it's back, another had a rocket launcher instead of it's cannon, yet another had to use both hands to hold the biggest sniper rifle he had ever seen. The final, and in his opinion the most dangerous, carried only one weapon, a seven barrel rotary assault cannon that would have looked more appropriate on a tank hunter or corvette.

Valern was surprised that a new race could make and utilise functional power-armour, even if they only gave it to special-forces it was a major technological and militaristic edge. The strength it must have to let them carry and use tank grade weapons. Of course he didn't know about the power of a witch, thus he would be unprepared of the capabilities of a striker set.


	5. Timeline two

Time line:

2157: Peace talks go well until the Counsel demanded that _Yamato_ be decommissioned and that all energy weapon tech be handed over to them in exchange for joining the Citadel. The Alliance representatives turn down joining as a result.

2158: Cerberus manifesto published, calling for the extermination of all witches and the enslavement of all non-humans.

2162: Slaver raids on Alliance colonies result in a massive anti-slaver operation by Alliance forces. Evidence found points to the Hegemony financing slavers.

2165: Major Alliance attack on Torfan results in irrefutable evidence of the Hegemony financing slavers. Alliance/Hegemony war begins.

2167: First deployment of medium and heavy land-strikers. Development of frigate grade space-strikers and super-heavy land-strikers is given the green light. The Council demand all data on witches and strikers, the alliance refused the demands on the grounds that they were not part of the citadel.

2170: Jane Shepard joins the alliance, ability short range instant movement (teleport). Attempted peace talks by the Council fail when Batarian extremists use it to kill the Alliance diplomats.

2172: Jane becomes N7 and is assigned to the SSV _Agincourt_.

2176: Skyllian Blitz stalled by Jane at Elysium. Jane re-assigned to _Yamato_ and transferred to the Strike Witches _._

2180: Hegemony surrenders and releases all slaves, but a number of hegemony vessels are unaccounted for.

2181: Turian Hierarchy approaches the alliance about a joint stealth vessel.

2182: construction of the Normandy begins.

2183: now.

 **Codex: Strikers**

Strikers are a category of devices unique to the Systems Alliance and only used by witches. Little is known of how they operate beyond the fact that they use quantum energy, what is know is that they are divided into two categories; land-types and airspace-types.

The lightest type of land-strikers takes the form of a suit of light power-armour and gives a witch the ability to mach a krogen in terms of strength.


	6. the beginning of hell

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or strike witches.**

 **Chapter 3: the beginning of hell**

Jane Shepard smiled as she checked over her Striker sets. As an N7 Witch she was skilled in using all forms of weapons, this also meant that she had access to all the striker types including the prototype super-heavy land-strikers and frigate grade space-strikers. At the moment though she only had three sets; a light and a heavy land-striker as well as a set of airspace infantry strikers. Propped up next to her light land and airspace strikers was a triple-barrelled assault pulse cannon, while her heavy striker set had an integrated heavy plasma beam cannon

Jane her self was an athletic woman with short red hair and gained the ears and tail of a wolf when she drew on her magic. Her pale skin and short flame red hair showed her Scottish ancestry. Another thing that showed that ancestry was her choice of close quarter weapon; a claymore type longsword which was currently attached to her back in the heavy weapons slot, right between an assault pulse gun and a light particle beam cannon in her assault rifle and sniper rifle slots respectively. Clamped to her thigh was a H-5 shredder heavy pistol sidearm.

"Commander Shepard, please report to the briefing room," Joker, the ship's pilot, called out over the ships comm. "the captain wants to speak with you."

"I'm on my way," she called back

As she made her way towards the lift at the back of the hanger she wondered what she was doing here during a shake down run. And just why they had installed a slow elevator on a warship.

After a short pause to persuade the rookie, Jenkins, to double check his equipment she arrived at the briefing room only to find the Turian spectre Saren Arterius and no sign of the captain in the room.

Turning to look at her, he spoke, "Ah, Commander I was hoping to speak with you before captain Anderson got here".

"About what?" Shepard asked, her hand twitching towards the butt of her pistol.

"About this planet we are going to, Eden Prime, I hear that it is very beautiful." he replied, ether not noticing or not caring about how close her hand was to her pistol.

"Its said to be a paradise," she confirmed "but I would not know because I've never been there"

Saren nodded "A paradise, yes, but it is also a symbol to the alliance that they can colonise a beautiful world and keep it secure, but how safe is it really?"

"Do you know something?" she growled out while drawing on her magic

Raising his hands in a placating gesture he replied "Nothing like that, just a question from one solider to another"

Letting her magic withdraw she nodded "Pretty secure, its got the 108th demolisher witches and the 202nd biotic witches on planet at the moment"

Nodding, Saren thought about what he knew of those two divisions:

The 108th had gained their name by destroying all the fortifications on Torfan with no support or casuties. The 202nd biotic witches simply had their name because they were all Biotics but were the only people able to go toe to toe with a Matriarch and win in terms of biotic strength.

At that moment Captain Anderson entered the room.

"Spectre, I believe that it is time to tell the commander what is really going on"

Shepard shook her head "Captain, I think the entire crew knows that this is not a normal shake down run"

Saren did the Turian equivalent of a smile "Indeed Commander, there are two things going on, the first is that an excavation team has uncovered a Prothean beacon our objective is to get it to the Citadel before it becomes public knowledge"

She nodded "And the second thing?"

"You have been put forward as a Spectre candidate, Saren is here to evaluate you for that position"

Seren nodded, "This will be the first of many missions together, I hope we can get along for the duration of them."

"the mission is this; go in, get the beacon, get out. A simple mission if all g-" Captain Anderson was interrupted by Joker.

"Captain we've got an incoming emergence message from eden prime, they are under attack by Hegemony military remnants backed up by what seems to be Geth."

"Damit," swore Captain Anderson, "whats the ETA of the nearest fleet?"

"Just over an hour captain, and its the Yamato fleet."

"and our ETA?"

"20 minutes"

"take us in fast and quiet, and once you've dropped off the team begin relaying targeting solutions for the fleet's XRMs."

"Roger that" came the reply

"Shepherd get to the hanger and gear up, this mission has just become an order of magnitude more difficult"

she nodded before teleporting to the hanger.

Saren blinked before shaking his head, "I will never get use to that" he muttered as he made his way to his way to the hanger.

 **Codex: XRMs**

extended range missiles, also known as XRMs, are a type of long range missile exclusively used by the systems alliance. They are unique in the fact that they are FTL capable enabling them to be used at FTL and between systems, attempts by the citadel races to replicate this capability have been met with failure.


End file.
